(urth) 5HC : Skinner, Turing and happiness
Iorwerth Thomas
iorweththomas at hotmail.com
Wed Feb 16 06:19:14 PST 2005
>From: maru <marudubshinki at gmail.com>
>>
>Not at all. I've long been convinced that my (and everyones really. They
>might not go about it
>very competently, but it seems universal to me) chief desire was to be
>happy, and all
>my desires should be subordinated to that goal.
>Thus far, what seems to satisfy my desires, and also bring me happiness is
>knowledge,
>and games & computers, and good literature like Wolfe's. And good oolong
>tea, but that is just me : )
Aristotle appears to have started his ethics along similar lines, but his
definition of happiness winds up pretty different from the common-or-garden
definition. And he'd agree with you on the value of knowledge :)
(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/ if you really care about
how this approach has been recently developed; it's one of the less dry
entries. The bit on whether virtue is suffiecient or necessary for
eudaemonia [flourishing] has some relevance to what I'm about to say.)
'Happiness' in the common sense might have problems being defined as the aim
of a prisoner of conscience in a Third-World country who refuses to back
down on his or her beliefs in full knowledge of the consequences; while such
a person might be described as 'morally fulfilled' - and may even feel so,
on occasion - describing someone who is being frequently beaten, in solitary
confinement, and/or tortured as 'happy' does feel like an abuse of the term,
I'm afraid. Though I may be misunderstanding your intent. (Which is
something I'm good at doing, so please forgive me if I have!)
Iorwerth
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